Yu Boya - High Mountains and Flowing Water
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Yu Boya - High Mountains and Flowing Water

Jun 3, 2025
GuZheng played by Xiang Sih-Hua
The story about a great zither player, Yu Boya, and his friend, Zhong Ziqi, was very popular in China and can be found in the book Lushi Chunqiu and in the Daoist text Liezi.
Zhong Ziqi could understand the meaning behind the music that Yu Boya played. He could tell from the music whether a lofty mountain was being described or if it was a flowing river. When Yu was touring Taishan, he encountered a storm. While hiding underneath a cliff, he played his zither to describe the rain and the occasional thunder. Zhong Ziqi had no problem recognizing all these things, just from listening to the music.
After Zhong passed away, Yu was very sad because he could not find another man who could understand his music so well. In great disappointment, he broke his zither and did not play any more music for the rest of his life. The idioms, "lofty mountain and flowing river" and "Boya broke his zither" refer to the story about Boya and Ziqi. To describe what happened to Boya and Ziqi, people say that "It is easier to find ten thousand ounces of gold than to find someone who can understand you."
Folk music is a mirror of Chinese traditional culture. It reflects both the history and the profound connotations of Chinese culture.

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